Tending Your Little Spark

Whenever friends ask my advice about making some critical decision I enjoy replying with my favorite quote, “You are only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it!” So said Robin Williams, and the madness to which he refers isn’t insanity or schizophrenia but that rare spark of reckless daring to try something new or the boldness to be different from others. Wisely, the majority of us keep our little spark under a bushel basket safely hidden from the puritanical police of societal respectability. Society does issue special licenses to be mad to artists, musicians, inventors, poets and others, but these arty licenses don’t protect their users from ridicule. When French impressionists displayed their paintings for the first time in 1874 they were judged for their “shear madness,” yet today’s galleries pay millions of dollars for a single one of these rare masterpieces. While the world values creative folly, it strangely fears and yet simultaneously reveres the terrible kind as observed by the poet Alexander Pope, “The worst of madness is a saint run mad!” We venerate “sane” saints like Mother Theresa of Calcutta who wear religious clothing while caring for the poor. The risky insane saints do not dress up in respectable religious garb to daringly live out the Gospel running madly in the footsteps of the Loony Rabbi of Nazareth. “Loony”?—that’s sacrilegious! But he was judged to be insane! Take away his halo and look honestly at his outrageously crazy behavior. Inspired by his small spark of madness he walked off his job as a carpenter to tramp the countryside breaking social & religious rules. He ate and drank with women, synagogue dropouts and societal scabs—tax collectors. He taught radically crazy ideas: always forgive; never be violent or seek revenge; never think angry thoughts; loan money without hope of being repaid; love those who hate and do harm to you. Not surprising then that when gossip of his bizarre behavior and teachings reached his family, they came to seize him saying, “He is out of his mind!” (Mark 3:21). So daily prayerfully huff and puff on your little spark of madness so to dare to live the teachings of the Mad Messiah…and people will think you’re out of your mind!

A Critical Conversion

Too frequently the news of the day is about another disastrous case of a young person who takes his or her own life after being bullied. This merciless harassment of the weaker and more vulnerable members in a group no doubt has existed ever since young men needed to prove their masculinity. Beyond calculation are the unreported occurrences of this ageless persecution since the bully is hidden—inside you! Everyone has one. Since childhood, your hidden oppressor has crudely taunted your weaknesses and bodily deficiencies. Your invisible persecutor enjoys making you feel deficient and to view others as superior to you, constantly pointing out your inability to measure up to that old grade school admonition: Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best! No one can be the best in everything. Your interior chastiser nevertheless relentlessly requires you keep improving your work until it is perfect. After years of this endless persecution, can’t something be done about this bullying? The best thing you can do is to convert your inflictor, and you can begin by going to the dictionary. You will find under the word “bully” that the British use it as an exclamation for anything splendid or excellent. It can also mean “dashing or gallant” and, most important, even “a sweetheart or lover!” Today, begin the transformation of your cruel inner-critic into your lovable friend who in the act of spotlighting your mistakes provides you with realistic feedback. Critical is “realistic” since each of us is our own Minister of Propaganda who endlessly produces excuses for our careless mistakes and procrastinations. Your converted ex-bully—now your friendly adviser—helps you to achieve excellence by critically judging whatever you do. So rejoice in your new rare gift of a personal trainer and critic-coach of excellence.

Beware of Winning the Lottery

Rich people are different! They are not the same simply because they have more money, but because they are more likely to lie, cheat and steal! Researchers conducted experiments of 1,000 people whose average incomes ranged from $16,000 to $150,000 and found those with the most money were also most likely to behave unethically. For example, the rich would cheat to win a $50 prize and would pocket extra change given to them by mistake. A similar difference was found between drivers from wealthy suburbs who drove expensive cars and drivers of cheaper cars. Studies showed rich drivers were four times more likely to cut off other drivers in traffic and to refuse to wait for pedestrians. Clerks who rotate duty in chain stores report customers in their stores in the wealthy suburbs were ruder and more impatient than customers in the stores in the lower income areas of a city. Researches credited this different behavior of the rich to their attitudes of entitlement and lack of needing to be socially acceptable. Now, maybe you’re not wealthy—but you may desire to be rich. You may daydream about winning the lottery and how you would spend your new millions. Don’t! Daydreams of being a millionaire are toxic! Research has shown by simply imagining you are rich makes you unethical and selfish! When low-income volunteers were asked to pretend to be wealthy they behaved just as unethically as the wealthy, eating the candy that researchers had given to them for their children. “Blessed, more polite, more honest, more truthful and ethical are the poor!”

Prophet Pierre de Coubertin

The last Haystack reflection raised the question if competition in sports and daily life is detrimental to your Christian values, like it is to Amish Mennonite Christians. Ah, it’s a complex and thorny question since the very lifeblood of our American society is competition that’s most apparent in sports and the business world. The sports enthusiast Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who in 1890 revived the Olympics, said, “Sports are a kind of religion, with its own church, dogmas and ritual.” Prophetic were those words. Today, thousands of fans crowd into stadium-churches, while hundreds of thousands more at home watch religious services of college ball games on Saturday television and professional games on Sunday. With that reality, let’s examine Coubertin’s statement. Its churches: The giant stadiums and coliseums that are larger than Gothic cathedrals to which come thousands of the faithful liturgically vested in the colors of their team. Its dogmas: The infallibility of the decisions of the umpires and referees. The dogmatically rigid rules for how many players may be on the playing field or court at the same time and what happens when a game ends in a tied score. Its rituals: The elaborate ceremonies to begin the games with flags and the national anthem, as well as the colorful halftime ceremonies. But the central sacramental ritual of every game is the Holy Competition that binds countless thousands together as one in a zealous desire that their team wins. The church prohibition by Amish Mennonite Christians that forbids their children from playing competitive sports because they are contrary to their religious beliefs may seem bizarre, yet the Olympics ended in 393 AD by order of the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius I who banned all pagan cults and rituals! But how can our obsessive competitive nature be converted? Coach Jesus (a more appropriate title than Lord) urged his followers to compete with themselves, not others! Coach Jesus challenges his followers to Olympian heights of being Godlike in the way they love, forgive and care of others, saying, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is superlative, the best, the champion!” (Matthew 5:48)

Edward Hays

Haysian haphazard thoughts on theinvisible and visible mysteries of life.